Ground Control Touring

One of Manchester’s most talked about new indie artists, Freak Slug –  real name Xenya Genovese – is a singer songwriter and visual artist bringing confidence to her audience in a playful and energetic way. Her writing style is unapologetic, fearless, and brimming with blazing honesty, as she seeks to help others discover their unique selves.

Xenya started making music at the age of 15, she learnt a few chords and found she was immediately writing songs, becoming more obsessed by the hour as she experimented in unusual ways. After studying Art in London she moved to Barcelona and started on her journey to discovering what Freak Slug could really become.

Freak Slug has steadily been releasing music since her debut release - a cover of ‘Disorder’ by fellow Mancunian’s Joy Division - brought her into many people’s consciousness. With every release carefully and confidently developing her sound, from Instagram viral hit ‘Friday’ and playlist mainstay ‘Radio’ to acclaimed EPs ‘I’m In Love’ and ‘Viva La Vulva’ on London label Our House Online. Freak Slug has now amassed over 60 million Streams Worldwide and gathered support from sites such as Clash, Our Culture, Notion Internet Crush, Fader, Line Of Best Fit and Nylon.

With her 4 piece band Freak Slug has performed at The Great Escape, Blue Dot, Greenman, End of The Road festivals and supported Dope Lemon, Brad Stank and Yumi Zouma. She has just announced her first trip to the US playing at Desert Daze festival in California. This summer Xenya was invited by Anderson Paak for a week long writing camp in Cork, Ireland hosted by Jameson’s Distilled sounds.

Freak Slug is releasing new music in 2024 and will be touring in 2024/25.

“Music to me means identity and community. When I was younger, it helped me and my friends feel like we belonged to each other. Til this day that still makes sense…”
If I wasn’t making music, I’d probably be trying to make painting work for a living. That’s what I was doing in the past when I was in Barcelona but then music became the main character. I’ve always been fascinated by street walls, thick dilapidating layers of paint, where the organic and industrial worlds meet. I love art that was never made intentionally, either by shadows, builders or history fading before our eyes.” – Xenya